I have been slacking on post in the past two or three weeks. There has just been so much going on. I’ll try to sum up the highlights.

KC Wedding

Becki and I went to KC (Liberty to be exact) for her sorority sister’s wedding.  It was a fun trip and a really nice wedding at a country club. It was great finally meeting the people that Becki spent 4 years of her life with.

San Juan, PR

I went to San Juan for a work trip. I was unfortunately sick again like I was when I went 5 years ago for work. Luckily, I just had a cold instead of the flu so it wasn’t too bad. I stayed at the Caribe Hilton which was the first international Hilton according to a History Channel documentary I watched while at the hotel (weird coincidence). The resort was huge and very luxurious.  The weather was not the best though. It was very windy and a little rainy.

I had one free day when I arrived so I decided to do a snorkeling excursion. I almost did not make it because of over capacity but we were able to find another company. The experience was pretty cool. For $85, they picked you up at the hotel at 8AM, provided food and drinks (adult beverages too) for breakfast and lunch, took you on a catamaran all day, and stopped at an island for snorkeling and also another snorkeling spot (with gear included).  The meals and transportation alone were worth the $85. The water was warm but the snorkeling sucked. The water was very disturbed due to the wind so the visibility was poor. I wasted $30 on a waterproof disposable from the overpriced hotel gift shop.

We also had some dinner in Old San Juan which was pretty cool. There are a lot of forts over looking the ocean and has a very small town feel like in Europe. I guess that is because the buildings are 400+ years old.

Here are some more pictures.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras was very fun despite the cold weather. St Louis has been on a bad run of weather for this awesome holiday and the weather toyed with us again since it was nice the day before and after Saturday. Needless to say, Becki and I had a great time hanging out with friends. We even went to Maurizo’s after trying to get into other places that had over an hour wait. It was good but it was too early for the buffet. Mardi Gras still is one of my most favorite days in St Louis.

This week end was pretty action packed. I went to the Blues game with the extended family on Friday. We normally get upper deck tickets each year but we decided to go all out this year and get a suite. We invited some of the ladies too since we needed a minimum of 16 people. I was a little concerned with paying $75 a person with no drinks but the view and ability to walk around made it worth it. I would love to do it with a group of friends. The Blues blew the lead with 5 seconds left in the game and lost in a shootout so it was a disappointing outcome.

Becki and I tried out racquetball (first time for Becki and the first time for me since MU) on Saturday morning. I loved it but definitely need a new racquet. Let me know if anyone is interested in playing at the Downtown Y as I can get you in for free. Saturday night was a Valentine’s Day night for Becki and I since I thought I would be out of town on Monday. We grilled bacon wrapped filets, baked potatoes, and an awesome salad. The potatoes and salad turned out amazing. The steak did not as much as the grill in my building is a little broke plus I did not nearly cook it enough. We threw it on the grill for another 5 minutes then broiled it for another 10 and it was finally edible but it killed the mood. I would get it next time though we try. We also watched Social Network which I thought was awesome. I was expecting something much different.

I detailed my car on Sunday since we had awesome weather. It really needed it. I also repaired some things on the inside. Besides that, it was a pretty lazy day.

This weekend was a long weekend which is good. Becki and I did a little bit of everything and it was quite nice. I also got some decent sleep in too.

Friday night was a “date night.” We got some Crazy Bowls then headed back to my place. We watched Jersey Shore (which is not in HD after all) then played Kinect. I realized that I needed a rug mat after playing Kinect since my rug was going everywhere in all the jumping action. We also watched Dinner for Schmucks. This movie went well with Jersey Shore since it was also a trainwreck. It was one of those movies that made you laugh but I would never watch it again. It was so weird though that I would recommend watching it. I would give it a 6.5 out of 10.

I watched the devastating loss by MU on Saturday. They really needed that win and should have it. They missed a lot of free throws and made a lot of bad decisions. Their age really showed. I was impressed by their shooting though. The 3’s were really raining down.  We went on a couple date with Becki’s sister on Saturday afternoon/night to the Science Center for the Grossology exhibit. The exhibit sort of sucked as it was really geared towards kids but it was fun never the less. We rounded out the night with an early dinner at Drunken Fish followed up with dessert at the Cupcakery. I have been to DF a bunch but never had sushi. All I have to say is that it is expensive but it was my best sushi experience. We had 4 kinds of rolls and all were delicious. The Red Velvet cupcake was delicious too. I loved the cream topping.

Sunday was an errand day. I got that rug mat that I needed Friday night. We also watched the season premier of Big Love. This season sounds pretty exciting since the family is falling apart and a lot of secrets are going to be revealed.

• I really need to head out to the new bars by my house on Washington Ave. Rosalita’s and Jive and Wail all recently opened. I am really impressed that Jive and Wail is offering free cover to all downtown residents that can show a 63103 or 63101 zip code on their ID. I think that is a great idea and all the places downtown should follow. I think that would lead more “locals” to hit up these kinds of areas and increase the sense of community.
• I also need to hit up the Whiz Tech Cafe which is on my street and a block away.  I am a little surprised by the location and the concept but the menu sure looks good.
• I am extremely happy to see work begin on the Leather Trades building across the street from my condo. You can read more about the redevelopment in the Stl Business Journal. This place was in the process of being built when I bought my place and was part of the Pyramid collapse. It will be very nice to bring more action to my block. The end goal would be to fill up all the buildings from my block to Pepper Lounge. It is a work in progress as that area continues to add more business and redevelops.
• I love that Charter is finally catching up to their competitors in their HD line up. I have experienced my issues with Charter in the past but they are doing really well in Customer Service in my eyes now.  They added 11 new HD channels yesterday and I have been told that they will add another 14 in March. MTV is awesome for Jersey Shore, VS is good for hockey, Nick is good too. I can not wait for E to come out in the future. It will pretty much wrap up all my tv watching in HD.

11 New HD Channels:
Versus HD (Expanded Basic): 731FX HD (Expanded Basic): 732Big Ten Network HD (Expanded Basic): 733Speed HD (Expanded Basic): 734Hallmark Channel HD (Digital View): 742Cooking Channel HD (Digital View Plus): 743VH1 HD (Expanded Basic): 744MTV HD (Expanded Basic): 746Spike HD (Expanded Basic): 747ABC Family HD (Expanded Basic): 748Nickelodeon HD (Expanded Basic): 749

14 HD channels in March 2011 (No firm date released yet):
ESPNU HD (Digital View/Sports View): 737Lifetime Movie Network HD (Expanded Basic): 738CNBC HD (Expanded Basic): 739MSNBC HD (Expanded Basic): 740Travel Channel HD (Expanded Basic): 741Disney XD HD (Expanded Basic): 750Cartoon Network HD (Expanded Basic): 717ESPN News HD (Sports View): 718TruTV HD (Expanded Basic): 724E! HD (Expanded Basic): 723CMT HD (Expanded Basic): 722Oxygen HD (Digital View): 721HLN HD (Expanded Basic): 720BIO HD (Digital View): 719

• Here is a great analysis on Blaine Gabbert. Finally, someone has watched all the tapes and realizes that this guy needs a lot of work. He might be the prototypical build for a NFL QB but he sure does need some work on pocket presence. I can really see him bombing if he is drafted as a franchise QB and thrown into a starting role in the 1st year or two.
• The Colorado upset of Missouri doesn’t seem to be that much of an upset anymore after Colorado beat K State in Manhattan last night. The Big 12 is just really strong and every road game is going to be tough.

That’s all I got. I was going to break up these posts based on Matt’s comments but I am too lazy so you will have to deal with it.

This weekend was pretty jammed pack full of all kinds of fun events. I was a little worried going into the weekend since both my girlfriend and I were both sick but I miraculously recovered by Friday.

I went to a friend’s 30^th bday part on Friday. The hype around the party was that we were going to have a pizza eating contest. This contest stemmed from a conversation over NYE about one of my friends who participated in an annual White Castle eating contest at his work. My friend ate 20 for the second year in a row and the winner ate 22. I thought that was very weak and said I could easily eat 20. Well somehow the contest we did turned into a Little Caesar’s Hot-n-Ready contest.  I really did not plan on participating. Needless to say I came very close to eating the whole pizza in the 12 minutes allowed to win the contest. I was half a slice away and came in second by only a couple bites.  I should have won it though as I thought I was far behind the winner. I also struggled because I had a huge lunch of Mexican, already had a couple beers (the guy that won had zero beers at that point), I had a fatty breakfast, plus my teeth were sore from my new braces. All I can say is that I probably ate at least 6000 calories that day. We ended the night at the Tin Can in Tower Groves.

I lounged around on Saturday and ran some errands. I still can not believe that Seattle beat the Saints. What a turn around in two weeks! We went to Café Eau on Saturday night for a 30^th bday party. I was pretty amazed by the turnout. The place was packed. They had a band who I think was called King Pin. It was awesome because it was basically a live version of PaddyO’s after a Cards game. They played all the classic 80’s and 90’s songs while also playing some of the new hits. Becki and I will definitely be going back.

We did not do much on Sunday. We watched some football games and my girlfriend got the new Evo Shift 4G. The jury is still out but I was sort of expecting more out of the Android operating system (especially since this is a recently released version (2.2 Froyo). It was my first time using Android and I was not overly impressed. I liked some of the live interaction but everything seemed a little too complicated. I keep seeing that Android’s market share keeps going up thus why I was expecting a totally unique UI. It gives me new found respect for my Blackberry OS 6 UI as I think it is simple to use while delivering all my needs.  I also watched the season premier of Californication and the series premier of Episodes. Californication was awesome and I am glad it is back. Episodes was sort of boring but I will give it a couple more chances. I saved Shameless for later in the week but I liked the early season premier episode last month. I can not wait for the start of Big Love’s final season next week!

Oh, I forgot to mention that this was the first week of having Invisalign braces. As I may have posted before, I have been toying with the idea for over a year but could not bear to spend that much money since it is not covered by my insurance. I found out about the pretax flex plan which saved me money since the money is taken out before taxes so I took the plunge. Overall my experience has been good. I do get a little choked up every once in a while but I was expecting a lot worse since I have a pretty sensitive mouth. My teeth are a little sore but I really only notice it when I take my retainers in and out to eat. The main thing that I did not realize until I got them was that my diet is going to totally change. My short addiction to soda will probably die and also my snacking since I can basically only drink water when I have them in and have to brush my teeth before I put them back in. Needless to say it is going to be a long 10 months but it will be worth the pain.

One of the things I love about Christmas is the extended time off for work. My work gives us two days each for Christmas and New Years and most of our supplier take the week off between Christmas and NY so its a big week to also take off. I normally take off the week before Christmas to have a huge break but was limited in vacation days due to the Australia trip. Thus, I only had 12 days off.

I may have wrote and said that Becki and I were going to tackle some big home improvement projects like painting base boards and refinishing her hard wood floors on her second floor but none of that happened.  Instead we relaxed and went to a lot of holiday parties with family and friends. Below is a summary of a little bit of everything.

Kinect

We got a Kinect for Christmas. We bought Kinect Sports and Kinect Dance Central in addition to getting Kinect Adventures with the device.  First off, you will find that most people do not know what a Kinect is so Microsoft is not doing something right. I know they are running a bunch of adds but they seem to not be sticking. Maybe it is the weird name. The Kinect is pretty awesome and everyone that has played it with us thinks the same. Dance Central is hard for Becki and I so we do not play it but others find it easier and fun. We love Kinect Adventures. The rafting and the 3 other adventure games are pretty fun but I can see the game getting old. The sports game is a lot of fun. It really mimics the actual sport in many ways. My favorite is volleyball and track and field. I am pretty sure you could play a game on this for an hour a day and would be a great work out. We were sore the whole first week we played. You always work up a good sweat when playing.

Sporting Events

The MU – Il basketball game was very entertaining. I do think that the IL foul was intentional but it was a tough call at the end of a close  game. The IL player should have never fouled in the first place anyway. If he wouldn’t have fouled they would have been down 3 with the ball and a lot of time.

The MU – Iowa game was very disappointing. I was expecting a slaughter knowing that Iowa did not finish good and was missing several star players. Maybe MU thought the same and did not bring their A game. Maybe MU does not get pumped up for bad bowl games when they deserve much better (the same thing happened last season). I blame a lot of it on Gabbert. He threw two costly interceptions. I find it lubricious that he is projected to be the #2 QB in the NFL draft and a possible top 5 or 10 pick. He might have the build and skills of a prototypical NFL QB but he has shown all season that he can not make it as a star even in college. I wanted him benched earlier in the season.  This must be a horrible draft year for QBs after the great year last year. I would hate to be the team that drafts Gabbert wanting to build a franchise around him.

The Rams are depressing….that is all I can say. You could say that they did much better than last year but I am not going to give them that cop out. They were in the position to win the division and choked. They had a weak schedule and could easily only win a couple games next year due to a harder schedule. I think three things need to happen. Get rid of the Offensive Coordinator. He is not getting it done in my eyes. He calls all the wrong plays at the wrong time. The second is to draft a WR in the first round. The third is to sign a big name WR. We can not wait for a rookie to pan out while Bradford is at the top of his game. Get in done Kronke!

Becki and I were fortunate to get front row tickets to a Blues game. It was awesome being on the ice but definitely not worth the $250 face value of the tickets. The tickets were all inclusive so that included food and drinks two hours before the game until 30 minutes after the game. There was only one place to get the drinks and food but fortunately it was in our section. I also caught two pucks but gave them both to kids sitting around me.

Family

I think I went to 5 different Christmas parties with both mine and Becki’s families. All were fun and I ate a ton of food. Its always nice catching up with family. It is weird because I think I get the majority of my family time visits in over a 40 day period between Thanksgiving and New Years.

New Year Eve

We went to Mango for a group dinner for NYE.  On a sort of different subject, Mango’s website was just blocked by my work’s internet filter because it said it was porn…pretty weird. We had 5 other couples. Overall, I would say the group was disappointed. The person that made the reservation specifically asked if there would be a special menu for NYE in which she was told no. Of course there was when we got there.  Thus everyone spent a little more than they wanted to but that wasn’t my problem. My problem was that the place was not full but it still took like 3 hours to get through our dinner. I thought that is why restaurants have special menus to avoid this. I enjoyed my food although I thought the portions sucked. Most of the people I talked to were not impressed or didn’t like it at all.  Thus after a bad group experience in Vegas and two years in a row of quasi service for NYE, Becki and I decided we are going to avoid group dinners and NYE dinners. It’s as simple as that! The party that Becki and I hosted was pretty awesome. We had a small gathering and basically just played Kinect all night. I was impressed as some of my friends stayed up till 3:30 in the morning and with their impressive jumping skills.

This was a pretty jammed pack weekend. We braved the mall on Friday evening to do some Christmas shopping. It was dead so that was a plus. We also watched Get Him to the Greek. It was a funny movie. The P Diddy scenes were the best.

We had a trivia night on Saturday for a family at my girlfriends work. It was a fun time and we did relatively well (16 out of 40). The funny thing was that we bombed on the sports category (2 of 8 ) but did well on all the others (avg 6 of 8 on the other rounds). I have realized that I am pretty good at useless trivia. We finished out the night at The Famous Bar. I am going to go and elect that bar to be the smokiest bar in St Louis….an award previously held by Rue 13. You could smell the smoke as you approached the door. My car still smelled smokey the next day. I can’t wait for January 1 to get here so St Louis and the county are smokefree.

Sunday was a big day for home work at Becki’s. We put up the Christmas tree and decorations. The blurry picture above does not do the place justice. Her house really looks great. I also installed a new front porch light above Becki’s front door. It sounds like an easy task but not on an old house. First, I had to drill out the screws of the existing one since they used flathead recessed screws that were as soft as butter. Secondly, I now didn’t not have screw holes to install the mounting plate for the new one so used some self tapping larger screws to mount it permanently. Besides that and the fact that it was 20 degrees, it went pretty smoothly and the light looks awesome.

In TV news, Becki and I both started watching The Event. That show is sort of additicting. It is my new favorite out of the new but old season (it is actually the only new show I watch besides Boardwalk Empire).

I went out with my lovely girlfriend on Friday night for our 1 year anniversary since our first date.  We went to Vin de Set which is where we went on our first date. We ate a ton of food (our bill supplemented this). We started with a mix cheese plate, then I had a three onion soup, then we both got the beef tenderloin medallions. The main entrée was awesome. It has great mashed potatoes, asparagus and the steak was so tender.  We got a cheesecake to go which we ate on Saturday which was extremely delicious.

I had most of the day Saturday to myself since Becki was hosting her sister’s baby shower.  I caught up on Dexter and all but one episode of Fringe. Fringe was very good and I had not watched a single episode yet this season. I really like the mystery in the show. I also like the crazy technology that is shown in the parallel universe. I also watched the MU Tigers basketball and football games. The basketball team has a ton of talent. Right now, they look a little lost since they have so many scorers. Hopefully they will gel and have a great season. The football game was pretty good too. Blaine had his best game throwing in a long time (in my opinion) but they still are not very consistent. They seem to forget about the crossing patterns and short throws up the middle in which they rock at. Becki and I closed out the night watching Iron Man 2. It was a pretty good flick.

We did some shopping on Sunday. I looked at the TV that I am toying with getting. Its going to be $1500 on Black Friday. I didn’t think I was sold on the LED technology but I will now only buy one with it. Best Buy had the same two 55″ platforms next to each other (one with LED and the other just a regular LCD).  The LED LCD was so much more vibrant. I also got the Kinect but its a Christmas present so I wont get till open it for another month. I watched the Rams game too. They look pretty good but couldn’t stop Atlanta. I also have no clue who that shuttle pass was going to at the end of the game.  On the tv front, I watched the season premier of The Event and Sarah Palin’s show. The Event was pretty good and I think my girlfriend liked it too so going to play catch up if I can find a place to watch the 2nd episode since I lost it in my DVR issues a couple months ago. The Palin show is good too. It makes me want to go to Canada.

I went to Las Vegas last week for the SEMA and AAPEX show.  This show is a very good perk for working in the automotive industry. The cab driver said that this show is the biggest week for Vegas as it is slightly above CES (consumer electronic show). I have been to this show 3 times before but I missed last year. It is always pretty awesome to see all the cool cars and accessories.

This year was a little different than usual. I think it was a combination that I am really busy at work, don’t have the same enthusiasm for cars as I use to, and the fact that I was by myself. This all led to me only spending a couple hours at SEMA. I saw some cool stuff but was pretty bored.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the food. I ate Asian food 3 out of the 4 nights and also had the best steak I ever had.

The first night I went to The Paiza Club in the Palazzo. This is actually my second time eating there but the first time it was in the Venetian before the moved it to the Palazzo.  I am extremely fascinated by this place. It is on the top level of the hotel and it over looks the strip. It is hidden between rooms on the top floor and you need a key-card to get in. Once your in, your greeted at a front desk into a large room with a piano, gambling, tables, and a couple private rooms. According to Yelp this is an extremely high profile place that only Asians get into with big pockets. I wouldn’t doubt that knowing my guest. We ate traditional Chinese food and the highlight was Kobe beef tips.

The second night we went to Lotus of Siam with my work group. Our Director said this was the highest rated Zagat restaurant in Vegas along with one of the best Thai places in the US. You wouldn’t tell that from the outside or in since it was way off the strip and not in the best part of town. The inside was very plain but there were tons of pictures of celebrities on the wall. This was my first experience with Thai food. I thought it was pretty good but honestly can not tell that much of a difference between this and other Asian foods.

The third night I ate at Delmonicos in the Venetian. I got the fillet (along with everyone else) and it was the best steak I have ever eaten. That Emril really knows how to cook a steak. I was told you can make the seasoning from his website….I am going to definitely give that a try. I also tried scotch for the first time. It was very tasty but I also think we were drinking some expensive scotch (aged 14 years) so not sure if I would ever buy it on my own.

The last night we ate at Sushi Roku in the Venetian. I was with some people from Taiwan and Mexico so I thought it would be interesting to get sushi. The view was awesome as it was 4 floors off the ground and looked down the strip. The food did not disappoint either. We shared some awesome chicken and beef skewers, edamame, and assorted vegetable tempura. I got confused with the sushi menu and ordered way to much but the table was able to eat it. The warm sake was also much better here than Lotus of Siam.

I also ate the breakfast buffet at TI a lot. I really do not understand why everyone doesn’t eat there at the hotel. There is a coffee shop there that is huge and always packed. For $25 you can get a small OJ, a couple eggs and hash-browns (no meat if you did not notice). For $18 after a tip, you can eat at the buffet where they have fresh pastries, omelet stations, all kinds of meat, fruits, smoothies, and unlimited juices. Its also a nicer atmosphere but I guess there is stigma against buffets.

I also really enjoyed being in Vegas too. I just like the atmosphere. I did not drink much and did not gamble one dime but I watched a lot of NBA games and roulette. It is just relaxing to me. I did go to a pretty cool place next to Tryst in the Wynn along with going to Crush so did get a little night club experience in (although brief).

Pictures of my trip are here.

The past weekend was a pretty fun weekend. I ran a ton of errands with my girlfriend on Friday then called it a night. One thing to note is that we went to The Rack for the first time. I was not impressed…I was expecting better deals and more of an offering.

On Saturday, we went to a friends to watch the Mizzou game. What a disappointment! MU safeties played horrible and we did not play the same style of offense that we have been. Blaine looked horrible in the pocket with happy feet. Needless to say our National Championship dreams our over and probably the Big 12 tourney but we might pull a Kansas and actually benefit by not being in the tournament and still get a BCS bowl game if we win out.

My girlfriend and I dressed up as people from the roaring 20′s. She was a flapper and I was a mobster. We went to a friend’s party Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and we had the best costume (in my opinion).

I watched the awesome Rams game on Sunday. They look pretty good. Imagine if they wouldn’t have blown all those leads.  My girlfriend and I had a small BBQ for Halloween night and welcomed trick or treaters.

Here is my Halloween picture set.